Paper Famine Affects Pioneer-. Rich mond Industry-Weigel's Pattern Factory Pays High Prices for Raw Material. Scarcity in the supply of paper is having an effect on other industries besides printing and newspaper offi ces. The cut paper pattern works of Madame Weigel in Lennox-street are a notable instance. ,In pre-war times this Australian firm built up a very large business, and the reserve funds have enabled the firm to so far carry the extra cost entailed by the tremen dous increase in the price of paper. All overseas pattern journals have been increased in price from time to time since the war began. Referring to the exigencies of the position, Mr. C. Reynolds, the manager of the Ma dame Weigel works, said this week that he had recently paid £1080 on account of an order for paper, and to that amount ,has to be added vastly. increased charges for freight and in surance, and even then its arrival here is extremely problematical. In pre-war times a similar order would have been la...

Diamond Jubilee of Presbyterian Church.-Historical Sketch and Details of the Celebrations. Celebrating the diamond jubilee next week, the members of Richmond Presbyterian Church, Lennox-street, are marking the conclusion of 50 years' good work in the district In 1857 the John Knox congrega tion who worshipped in Melbourne resolved to set up a church in Rich mond. A building was secured off Cremorne-street, and still stands, though it is now divided into two houses. The Rev. J. W. Inglis, who was then a school teacher, proved an efficient helper as a preacher. He afterwards became a minister and won general recognition in church work. The late Messrs. M. L. Hutch inson (founder of the well-known city book store), Alex. Parker, John Eadie, and the Hon. Jas. Balfour were others who did much towards the suc cessful establishment of the church. Prosperity came slowly but surely, and the Rev. Samuel Kelly was ap pointed to conduct services. After many unsuccessful attempts to settle a .mi...

Richmond Crimes Cleared Up by Arrests.--Alleged Confession That They Fired at Constable Street. Following upon smart work by P.C. Constables Koetsveld and Lynch,- de tectives arrested three youths -on Monday, and, as ,a result, several Richmond crimes have been cleared up. The youths are Alf. Jas. Pem bridge (21), Cyril Alexadnder Smithi (18), and William Victor Hughes (16). They had in their possession gelignite, a loaded revolver, and house breaking implements.. Amongst the happenings which have been explained was the firing, of a revolver at Constable Street.

Another Richmond Plainclothes-Con. stable Promoted.-P.C. Lynch Be comes Detective. "My name is Thomas Lynch; I am a detective stationed at Melbourne." There was a ring of satisfaction in the voice- of erstwhile Plainclothes Constable Lynch as he opened his evidence in the Richmond Court on Thursday with the sentence. He had taken up his new duties with the C.I. on the previous day. Richmond thus loses its second plainclothes man. As annouriced in the "Guardian" last week, Plain clothes-Constable Koetsveld will soon be promoted senior constable. He could have joined'the detectives long ago, but preefrred staying in Rich mond as a p.c. man. Lynch came to Richmond about a year ago, and he has done smart work. There was a keenness and ability about him which soon won recognition. Many arrests have been due to him direct ly or indirectly. Both the Richmond plainclothes men did good work in connection with the safe tobbery in North Richmond. It was Lynch who knew of a girl and a cafe prop...

A Trench Raid. STIRRING STORY BY PATRICK M'GILL. (New York "Sun.") The night was bitterly cold, and a wind, keen as a knife, sweeping across No MIan's Land, bit the' ears ot the sentries standing on the fire steps of the British trench. Now and again a man would bend down, shel ter his face behind the parapet and look at his luminous wristlet watch; then he would stand erect again and resume his vigil. In one of the dug-outs a dozen men or more were busy fastening bombs to their equipment and buckling iron rations to their belts. They were making ready for a raid, one of those "shows" in which the British sol diers delight and which keep the Germans constantly apprehensive and jumpy. The attack for which the men were preparing had a definite purpose. A machine-gun had been worrying the sector for days, and ration parties crossing the open at night had paid toll to the vicious weapon. Its exact location could not be determined, but somewhere out there in the confines of the enemy's l...

MICE AT THE TABLE. Hunger Has Robbed Them of Fear. Recently many of the mice killed in some districts in South Australia have been covered with small sores and scales on their bodies, and thou sands have died from this disease. Although the depredations of the un welcome guests are the chief ground of complaint, the stench of the dead has been no inconsiderable contribu tion towards the general disgust that the plague has evoked. On approach ing a farmhouse the visitor is struck b!y the "mousy" odor with which the atmosphere is tainted. The creatures die in hundreds every day, and it is, of course, impossible to locate every corpse! Housewives are at their wits' end to purge their homes of the un savory smell, and floorboards have .often to be removed before the cause of the trouble can be -decently inter red. Wheat on the farms is being carefully protected, and a number of expedients have been resorted to for this purpose. One that is more or less popularly approved is the con stru...

THEIR NURSES. We rocked their blue-lined cradles, we watched their smiles and tears; With tcil-worn hands we led them along the helpless years; They brought to us their sorrows, to us their broken toys; We were their first fond mothers, they just our baby boys! The years went by. From Sandhurst, clean-limbed, broad-shouldered men, To us in lodge and cottage would come our boys again, In from a long day's hunting or wet walk with the guns, To take their tea with "Nana." These were our grown-up sons. Then came the calling bugles that drew them as with cords; Our boys came home as soldiers in buckled belts and swords; 'Twas, "Wish me luck, then, Nana; I'm off to join the crowd!" What luck did we not wish them! And oh, but we were proud. We shared their every hardship; we knew; we knew so well The boys we nursed would bear them in face of shot and shell; By memory's fireguard shadow flung o'er a white cot's fold We, with the hearts of mothers, knew when our boys slept cold: We shared th...

Heel of the Hun. Strategic Pillaging and Burning of Bapaume. The Australians and 'Indians Have Driven Away the Huns. (From the Special Correspondent of "Le Petit Journal.") Amiens, 24th March.-The Bapaume Town Hall, with its front all scarred, its tower chipped and the beautiful gabions of its iron balcony projecting over its untouched porch, stands like a relic to be preciously preserved. In side the hall, ladders replace the de stroyed staircase. Over its doorway a strip of calico bears the inscription: "Australian Comfort Funds." It is already being used as a canteen where soldiers may have hot coffee to help them face the sharp wind of this freezing spring. Many motors are hurrying to and fro through the different roads of the town. Australian concert given to the freed inhabitants.-Placid looking and " turbanned Hindoo horsemen are sta tioned here and there. An Austra lian military band about pedestal sup porting Fardherbe's statue, and-the brass instruments give forth a sol em...

The Motor Launch Patrol Little grey wolves of the wild greyi: sea, . ":' Riding the hissing foam;: :,.\1· Little grey wolves of the vwind and:: storm, Running like Hell for home! In tireless watch on your lone patrols 'Neath Torrid and Arctic skies, They'll write your name on the scroll,, of fame Whorever the .Ensign flies. The big ships laughed in their iron-. clad might, As they proudly swept the seas,': And your little craft came .running by In the teeth, of a freshfiling breeze'; And- they asked ;each other; "Whet . ships are here, Thus mocking old Neptune's wrath?" And waited and watched in wonder and scorn. The little grey: wolves Steal forth! But on the wings of the four free winds To the uttermost, ends of earth, You have lived your lives and kept your watch For the land. that gave you birth. On perilous seas and uncharted shores You have chased and fought. and sunk, And there's many. a raider, sleeps" to night, By your prowess, in Davy s Bunik.. Little grey wolves of the- w...

Australian Notes. "6,189,097 IN CIRCULATION. £47,213,626 REPRESENTED. There are 7385 more Australian notes in circulation to-day in the Commonwealth than at the end of March, but the face value is £89,874 less. This result has been brought about by an increase in the issue of notes of low denominations and a decrease in the £50, £100 and £1000 notes. In a return issued by the Federal Treasury to-day it was shown that at the end of MIay there were in circu lation 3,195,826 10/- notes, 381,608 £1 notes, 1,261,577 £5 notes, 270,011 £10 notes, 22,223 £20 notes, 24,477 £50 notes, 10,908 £100 notes, and 22,467 £1000 notes, the total being 16,1890,097. notes, representing £47,213,626. The amount of gold coin held by the Treasury for the purposes of the Australian Notes Act was, at the end of last month, £15,287,660 10/-, representing 32.38 per cent. of the notes in circulation.

Bonus for Sons. HOW WOMEN MAY SAVE NATION. . Lady Beatrice Heron-Maxwell, writing to ihe editor of the "Weekly Dispatch," advocates a bonus for sons. H-er suggestion is not a depre ciation of her own sex; she rather thinks it would be a means of encour aging more women to marry. She contends that during the fir'st stages of life boy children are more frail and harder to rear than girls, and that the -natibn should help the parents to pre seriVe the precious man-child by mone thry help. The lady expresses her -'slf best in her own words. - She says: "I should be grieved indeed if it were thought that I wished to depre ciate women. On the contrary, it is because ,their future properity and usefulness seem ndw so assured that i ventire to advocate happy married life anid motherhood for a larger pro Portion of them than is rendered pos sible by existing conditions. "Women are and will be, able to keep up homes with or without men in them, but if the reinforcements to the race are to be ...

The Promised Land. AUSTRALIAN'S OBSERVATIONS. -WORLD'S OLDEST ROAD. "An Australian .officer writes from Palestine :'We are about to leave our pleas ant camp by the seaside and our little humpies (made of a blanket "over some sticks) to go on further into this wonderful coumtry, for wonderful it certainly is: "It was on the oldest road in the world, from Kantara to Gaza, that our troops travelled. It dates back to 6000 B.C., and the last Christian troops to travel it were the Crusaders under Richard I. (Coeur de Lion). There were at one time about 100,000 Greeks settled about Khan Yunus, Raffa, El Arish, etc., but their villages and towns have been all devastated, and one town-Mohamedieh-has been re built on the ruins of itself seven dif ferent times, as the Mahometans, Jews, Greeks, etc., have always been fighting. "Gaza is the town where Samson took away the gates of the city, and has been besieged more often than any town in the world. The country is magnificent, and this is the o...

Tax the Cat. NEW YORK AGAINST .PUSS. When the question of taxing casts was mooted a few months ago in Syd ney it was the cause of much hilar ity, but a greater city than Melbourne is after the cat's skinm It looks as if the:NTew York vagabond cat will soon be an outlaw, and the pampered household pet will be taxed for re venue. The charges made against the New York cat who walks alone are that 1e'"slays birds, disseminates disease, carries microbes in his fur, lockjaw in the scratch of his claw, and rabies in the bite of his teeth." According to one American author ity there are not fewer than 25,000,000 cats in the United States, and pos sibly twice that number. New York believes in the greater figures, and feels sure she harbors most of the cats in her precincts. As.a remedy for all the ills with which' the cat is charged, the Legis lature proposes that cats shall :be li censed, and any cat unable to show its license when called upon and with no definite abode shall be destroyed. ...

Ladies' Letter. Just think, a third new silhouette since the war! The dressmaking people are determined to bring back the Gibson Girl line in frocks. Mrs. Stanton has already gone back to the show you've-got-curves fashion, .but I don't see how it is going to be popu lar. Aunt Lucy says she will not (and no other war-worker will try to) be a Gibson girl. All the same, the fuffy outline is going, and really it is becoming the limit with its abbrevi ations. By the spring we all expect to be quite straight again. The Admiralty is being very kind to Australian girls. Besides giving the unmarried Captain Glossop, C.B., a short appointment in Sydney, they have made Captain Backhouse, R.N., flag-captain of H.M.A.S. Australia. Captain Backhouse is six feet four, and a bachelor. What more can any one want? Admiral Leveson now has his flag on the Australia, as Admiral Pakenham (who followed Admiral Patey) has succeeded Admiral Beatty as the head of the battle cruiser squadron. "Ye Olde Englys...

A. Little Innocent. You cannot be too careful of what you do and say before children, for it will surelycome back to you, A story that a well-known military man has just been telling illustrates this truth in a new way. A bright little son of a friend of his sprained his wrist while at play one day, and, not hav ing any other remedy at hand, the youngster's mother bathed the wound in whisky. A few days later the little fellow came rushing in with the startl ing announcement: "Oh, Mamma! Mamma! Papa has hurt himself"' S"What isthe matter withhim?" ask ed the alarmed,mamma. "He has strained his throat!" was the convicting reply. -He was gazing with~ dreamy eyes into the- far-on-ahead. - '.Ah, nmy darl ing," - he murmured, "Wrhkt matters it that sorrow and trouble huSt ofnecds hity.be lurking in the unknown future&amp;?: While I anm with you I think orinaught buT the present- the beautiful; siperb piesent." -"So do I; -dearest," she replied, 'but yot will take me with you, when-you...

Fete of the Bremen " UNK BY WARSHIPS. ... San Francisco. The first piece of news ever pub lished in the world regarding, the fate of the million-dollar German mercan tile submersible, the Bremen, the sis ter ship of theo-Deutschland, has just been given. to a San Francisco even ing newspaper, when .Mr. John M. Bailow, a New York and Boston stock broker and. dealer in European ex change, stated that the Bremen was sunklast Junewhile nearing the New England port of New London, and that proofs of.the loss have been submitted to the. Santa Fe, Southern Pacific Railway Companies, and other Ameri can corp6rations, in order to • have replaced over 2,500,000 dollars of their bonds, which went down with it. In terviewed, Mr. Barlow said:-"The Bremen was sunk by British warships patrolling the Atlantic from the Can adian east coast south to Baltimore very early in July, 1916, and while the world was stil electrified with the Deutschland's first trip to the port of Baltimore with a 7,000,000 d...

How Kitchener was Betrayed CZARINA SENT WIRELESS TO BERLIN. . TWELVE SUBMARINES .IN WAITING FOR HAMPSHIRE. It is now generally believed that the sinking of the cruiser Hampshire with Lord Kitchener on board was due to treachery of the ex-Czarina, who conveyed certain information to her German friends. This traitress was notoriously German in her ideas and sympathies, and although pre tending a great patriotism for Russia and visiting the hospitals where there were wounded soldiers, in the guise of sweet sympathy, she was surround ed at Court by pro-Germans, for whom her influence has gained a very large share in the adminfstration. It was known that Lord Kitchener contemplated visiting Russia, but none knew the date of his departure from England, excepting the King, the Prime Minister, some members of the Cabinet, and a few high offi cials of the army and navy adminis tration, all of whom could be relied upon for absolute secrecy. A special courier had gone ahead bearing se cret des...

Not Asked For. "Look here," said the customer, as he took the first bite, "I don't think much of this pie." "What's wrong with it?". demanded the 'baker, fiercely. '!Young man, I made pies before. you were born." "I daresay you did," was the reply, 'Ibut I didn't ask you for one of them." It was washihg day. "Shoey" was on ieave. 'He iflIed the copper, lit the fire,. drew- a sfiljply of water from the well, sawed: and chopped a heap :of wood, and fixed up the wringer. His missis, seeing the work getting: so well forward, in the fulness of her heart burst into song: 'IMy love he is a sailor bold, He ploughs the ocean " "H'm," -inurmured "Shoey'," "there's gratitude for yerl"

OUR MUSICAL GOSSIP. First Girl: I can't just recall what a fugue is. Do you know?.-' Second Girl: Certainly! It's one of those horrible family quarrels that Italians carry on- through generations. At Auburn; N.Y., two men have been found guilty of using the minails for the fraudulent purpose of selling pa tent medicine pi!ls at five cents a piece which they bought at 20 for one cent. In three yeais they took in £375,000. Judge Pickburn; of Neil South Wales Industrial .Court, during- the hearing of an applicationi for a diress makers' award, roused the ire :of a Sydney principal by the query: 'The Melbourne cut is superior to the Syd ney cut, is it not?" "Indeed it is not,'" .said the ivitness emphatically. Melbourne dressmakers are now .con vinced that we in Sydney are just as good as they are." It was ages ago in the nineties, you kniow, - SWhen from mansion: and cottage* and hut Oie thing had the call from the pur chasers all,. The superior Collins-street cut. That. has all passed...

The Submarine Problem POSSIBLE SOLUTION BY MEANS OF ELECTRICITY. It is just possible that Germany may . fiid the American Navy a stag gering surprise packet (says the en gineering correspondent of an English paper). . In fact, they may find its pre paredness and devastating powers no less astonishing than were those of the ."tanks." It is hinted by those who should know that in the United, States Naval Consulting Board, which is under the chairmanship of Mr.. Thomas: Edison, the inventor, lies per- haps the most powerful weapon of w~arfare to-day. In this connection a recent, cable message contained this information':--"Mr. Thomas A. Edison, the principal American inventive gen ius, is working on the submarine prob. 1cm. There are seventy-five experts assisting him. Twenty per cent. of the inventions that have been tested by the Government are utilisable, but have not solved the problem. The inventors are principally seeking an electrical device which will divert or prematurely expl...